Marvel has reportedly hit the reset button on Daredevil: Born Again after it failed to live up to the studio's lofty expectations.
According to The Hollywood Reporter (THR), Marvel's rebooted Daredevil series is in serious trouble as studio president Kevin Feige eyes a complete overhaul of the highly anticipated Disney Plus show. TechRadar has contacted Disney and Marvel for comment, and we'll report back if we receive a response.
THR's article is pretty damning in its portrayal of Daredevil: Born Again's production. The Marvel Phase 5 series, which had started filming before the now-resolved writers strike put its shooting schedule on ice, isn't up to the standard expected within the corridors of power.
Indeed, THR has claimed Marvel's executive team took one look at the currently shot footage and decided the whole project needed to be reworked significantly in order to meet fans' expectations upon release. Less than half of the show's 18 episodes had been filmed. But THR claims Marvel wasn't enamored with the series being positioned as a legal drama over the more R-rated action-focused vibe that Netflix's Daredevil series became famous for.
To that end, Daredevil: Born Again's showrunners – Chris Ord and Matt Corman – were quietly let go by Marvel, while the series' directors were also released until the studio decides what direction it wants to take the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) TV show. THR also suggests the Disney subsidiary is now on the hunt for an entirely new creative team to build the project from the ground up, although some previously shot footage will be retained for the final product.
This isn't the first worrying news to emerge about Marvel's rebooted Daredevil series in recent days. On October 6, we reported on the rumors that Daredevil: Born Again wouldn't air on Disney Plus until early 2025. Leaked US Copyright Office documents showed that the project wasn't expected to arrive for another 15 months, with fans speculating that the delay was simply down to the writers and ongoing actors strike. Now it seems that Marvel pushed Born Again's launch back because of how troublesome its development has been.
Daredevil: Born Again's problems are just the latest in a long line of recent negative press Marvel has had to deal with. Thanks to the industrial action, the studio has constantly had to delay multiple MCU movies. Meanwhile, on the TV side, the recently released Loki season 2 is believed to be the final Marvel TV show of 2023 as the company re-evaluates its small screen strategy as parent company The Walt Disney Company tries to stop hemorrhaging money in the streaming era. Previously announced 2023 shows, such as Echo, are now expected to arrive from January 2024 onwards.
Furthermore, Marvel has had to contend with mixed receptions to a number of its recently launched films and TV shows, with the likes of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Secret Invasion coming in for sharp criticism.
Add in the apparently terrible working conditions its in-house visual effects (VFX) workers have been subjected to – an issue one of Loki season 2's directors suggests is "systemic" – plus the forthcoming trial of Kang the Conqueror actor Jonathan Majors over domestic abuse allegations, and Marvel's reputation has taken a huge beating in recent times.
Marvel had hoped the more positive reactions that Guardians of the Galaxy 3 and Loki season 2 have been met with would alleviate some of the pressure it's currently under. However, with its Daredevil TV show becoming the latest project to suffer from unnecessary bad press, it remains to be seen if the MCU's global fanbase will continue to let things slide or if more viewers will start to lose faith in Marvel's cinematic juggernaut.
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